Teenage Rate Of Pregnancy Drops in U.S.

By NINA BERNSTEIN

Published: February 20, 2004

A new state-by-state breakdown of teenage pregnancy and abortion rates in 2000 shows declines among all racial and ethnic groups and in every state, continuing a decade-long trend that researchers attribute to better contraception and less, or more cautious, sexual activity.

Over all, the national teenage pregnancy rate declined by 2 percent from 1999 to 2000 and fell by 28 percent from its 1990 peak, according to data the Alan Guttmacher Institute compiled from the most recent figures available. The pregnancy rate among black teenagers dropped even more steeply, by 32 percent in the same period.

Nationwide, one-third of pregnancies among 15- to 19-year-olds ended in abortion in 2000, down steadily since 1986, and the rate of abortions per 1,000 women in that age group declined to 24 per 1,000, from a high of 43.5 per 1,000 in the late 1980's.

But the data released yesterday by the institute, a research group supporting abortion rights, showed that among black teenagers, the percentage of abortion rose to 41.5 percent, from a low of 39.6 percent in 1995.

Stanley K. Henshaw, a senior fellow at the institute, offered several possible reasons for that increase. One is the withdrawal of Norplant, a contraceptive implant, after lawsuits over difficulty in removing it. In the early 1990's, Dr. Henshaw said, Norplant was popular with black teenage women who had one child, a group also more likely to end a pregnancy through abortion.

Other reasons, he said, could be changes in the economy and in welfare policy that raised the cost of having a child. An earlier analysis by the institute concluded that from 1994 to 2000, abortion rates increased by more than 23 percent among adolescents and adult women with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level. For higher-income women, the rate decreased for both age groups by as much as 39 percent.

The variation among states on all measures is striking. Teenage pregnancy rates in 2000 were highest in Nevada, at 113 per 1,000, and lowest in North Dakota, at 42 per 1,000, well below the national average of 83.6. Abortion rates were highest in New Jersey, with 47 abortions per 1,000 women 15 to 19, followed by New York, with 46 per 1,000; the Connecticut rate was 30 per 1,000. New Jersey also had the highest pregnancy rates among black teenagers, 209 per 1,000; the rate was 167 per 1,000 in New York and not available in Connecticut. New Jersey had the highest percentage of teenage abortions, 60 percent, with New York at 58 percent and Connecticut at 49 percent. Only 13 percent of pregnancies in Kentucky and Utah ended in abortion.

Pregnancy rates for non-Hispanic white teenagers were highest in Arkansas (77 per 1,000) and lowest in North Dakota (33 per 1,000). For Hispanics, the lowest rates were in Mississippi (71 per 1,000) and the highest in Georgia (169 per 1,000). The lowest rate among black teenagers was in Utah (71 per 1,000).